11 Feb 2013

Last week, Reds midfielder Jonjo Shelvey publicly claimed that he'd been made a scapegoat for the Liverpool's poor performance in the recent Premier League defeat to Stoke City. Shelvey was back in the starting line-up for tonight's defeat to West Brom, and after the game, he reacted angrily to fan-abuse on Twitter.

Shelvey didn't have his best game in a Liverpool shirt tonight, but he was by no means the worst player on the pitch, and responding to criticism of his performance, he tweeted:

"Love people giving me stick .. When half of people on here haven't got a clue what they're on about. #welldone #keyboardwarriors"

After the Stoke game, Brendan Rodgers seemingly exiled Shelvey from the first team, and the youngster believes he carried the can for the 3-1 defeat. He told The Independent last week:

"I played against Stoke and obviously I didn't have too great a game. I had a few personal issues that were going on in my life. I didn't think I was the only one that had a bad game that day but I was the one that suffered if you know what I mean."

Well, tonight it looks like irate fans are making Shelvey the scapegoat. Some may argue that he shouldn't respond to random Twitter idiots giving him grief, but he's a young guy, and he's obviously sensitive to criticism.

Rodgers took Shelvey off in the 59th minute, which is the 17th time this season that he's either been subbed off or come on as a sub. Add onto that nine games as an unused sub, and it begins to look a lot like Rodgers just doesn't rate the midfielder.

Having said that, he started tonight's game ahead of Joe Allen, which has to be a positive thing, so he should take heart from that. Whether he starts any more games for the rest of the season, however, remains to be seen.

91 comments:

Disappointing. He didn't have a great game, but it is by no means his 'fault'.

The problem with the internet, and its greatest asset, is that it gives people equality. Whilst that means that a random guy with a good idea can be given as much attention and praise as some sort of leading light, it also means that ignorant fucktard's opinions are given the same weight and prominence as that of people who are capable of subjecting their own thoughts to a screening process, before they spill it all over the internet.

Worse still is the modern football fan who seems to equate hate with passion.

Seasons over. Makes little difference if he starts or not unless thy want to develop or sell him. He was Godawful tonight and needs to take it on the chin rather than lashing out at "keyboard warriors". But the whole squad lacks, steel, determination and the ability to win ugly. Or win at all to be honest. Brand Brendon is lacking the experience and depth we all knew he lacked. Another US f@ck up I think.....

I think twitter for footballers who are still playing is a bad idea. Although.. it allows them to communicate with the fans which is good.. hmm maybe there should be a setting where they can send tweets but not receive?

As for the criticism, i still think it abhorrent for fans to criticize their own players so regularly.. especially to their face. footballers need to the confidence to play without fear, which lets them relax and not be afraid to try the fancy stuff we all love. Downing and Henderson are perfect examples: last season with criticism they were shadows of what they are now: Downing's run in the first half where he blasted past the left back was great to see, as were some of Henderson and Shelvey's passes.

Now look at Allen, its no wonder he does short passes, when the riskier passes could mean he loses the ball and gets slated!

One game win or draw next game lose, that is Liverpool of today. No such thing as blaming Shelvey or saying WB's goal keeper was responsible for preventing us from scoring. Skill strikers or players can overcome a good goal keeper. Bottom line is players and strikers are not to the standard except for Suarez. Cannot blame BR if he has no funds to buy world class players which costs between £30 million and above. Our results will always be inconsistent. Next game they will win or draw and then you see the drop points again. It will take them years and years to get to the top with the present players. Unless of course if we find a new owner with a magic lamp to throw money to buy super stikers and wingers.Next game will be draw or win. Watch for it.!!!

to be honest, if you have a twitter account then its something you have to learn how to deal with. Its open ground for anyone to write anything, and even after the best game of your life, one fan will still post something bad. I think it would be better if these players werent on there, as I can`t see what good is does any club.

Shelvey is very immature which seems parr for the course for a lot of young English players.When he got sent off he went berserk at "Ol Plum Nose"then apologised to him then came out and said were he comes from nobody grasses other people up,well i wish Kojak would make his mind up,did he mean his apology,if so why in the next breath justify his actions by the childish grassing comment.Also spriniting to the press to say hes been made a scapegoat then crying hes had personal problems to deal with,does this mean hes offering some halfhearted excuse for his terrible performance yet at the same time trying to bring his so called teamates into it,well isnt that a form of grassing.Then tonight he cannot admit he was in anyway to blame for our woeful efforts in front of goal,even though he was better placed than anyone to take advantage of any chance.He is tempremental,he cannot handle pressure,he cannt take responsibility,he is more concerned about how he looks rather than playing as a team with teammates.Next he will be saying he stands out more cause hes bald.

all very very true, although being on twitter is opening yourself up to it. Same for FB, I hear people moan about privacy on FB, I`m like don`t join it then duh, somewhere along the line we have lost our way, and seem to think that we should be able to be on public websites like Twitter and FB, say what we want, but never have any of the downsides.

Of course regarding the internet, I heard a phrase once, which sums up most of the world, and how odd and lost we have become

"We have the entire knowledge mankind has ever known at our fingertips and instead we use it to search for videos of cats on youtube"

Not sure about the cats bits, but the principle is correct. We have been gifted such a wonderful thing, and some use it log in and write abuse to people.

Rodgers attempted using Shelvey as a centre forward. Shelvey is not a Daniel Sturridge by any means, is not positionally sound as a striker, does not have great hold up play and is not pacy by any stretch of the imagination. I do understand Shelvey was put up top because his shooting is actually more accurate than any of our strikers, but he doesn't move or think like one.

Another travesty by Rodgers is Henderson as a left winger. Hendo and Shelvey should perhaps have swapped positions, seeing as Shelvey's game is about moving the play and Henderson's is about support. Hendo does happen to have good hold up play and lots of pace. Suarez could have used the support up top.

Rodgers has had lots of money, and not all world class players cost £30mil or more. I like Rodgers, but have to stick with the truth still. He has spent a aweful lot of cash, and in time we will see if that was wisely or not, to early to judge for me

LOL! That's Gerrard and Shelvey! They try the risky passes all the time and often pass straight to someone from the other team. Henderson and Lucas, if you remember, did the same thing Allen does, and they still make shorter, safer passes. However, Hendo and Lucas never stop moving, hold the ball well and are everywhere. Allen gets slated for different reasons.

why do these silly boys go on twatter, especially high profile players (compared to u and I) talk about want a complex and asking for it. most of the players had gone on twitter tonight they would have got abuse. stupid.needs to keep his head down and make the most of his chances, because he is in decline due to confidence, and that stupid web shite is a recipe for disaster. maybe a tweet after a good win when fans are happy or paying respects.

I thought Shelvey deleted his twitter already? Whenever Shelvey starts nothing but bad things follow. Rodgers paid £11m for Borini then plays Shelvey as our striker?!! Borini must be terrible but why then bring him to Anfield? I was the only one saying he's absolutely useless the day we signed him because I watched him and knew his technique has horrid and he doesn't link up with other players.... Allen & Borini = another £26m down the shitter! Jose Enrique must have been dropped on his head a few times, he's a face you just want to punch. Liverpool seriously need a new LB. Johnson played tonight like he did for Kenny, garbage. Them players should seriously feel ashamed when they're picking up their wages this week, except Downing who was the only one to show some class.

borini was by far the worst player but we'll get onto that one after. shelvey is a big dickhead because he's been complaining about game time and was given the chance today. hendo really works his ass off when he plays in that role shelvey is in, and he is having to play on the wing now and still runs, trys to make tackles and contribute to the teams attack. shelvey didnt press no1, hardly was even moving and just looked like he really didnt care. this is a team with a massive history that is really trying to get back to the top especially for the supporters and hes been complaining as to say when he plays hes gonna score a brace and comes in does nonsense. he should now be restricted to substitute appearences and europa league if needed until he works his ass off in training and games.

fabio borini should be sold immediately in the summer. alot of money has been wasted in the past but we need to learn from these transfers and move on. if a 5m offer comes in the summer we should move him on quickly. the club need to start really identifying targets and not just spending 35m on a average player from newcastle, or 15m for a swansea type player who only passes 5 yards. despite this rough period, im sure all of my liverpool brothers and sisters out there know liverpool is a MUCH bigger club than swansea, and these kind of players are not good enough to play for our club. as there club is smaller than ours, they stood out for their team. coming to ours is a different ball game. borini may have good movement but that movement means nothing if you have no finish, touch or ability all together. borini was tackled almost everytime he got the ball today and his teammates often dont really pass to him as they know he will get tackled which he does. i think its clear hes not suited to the demands of the premier league and has to be the worst signing of the summer transfer window.

now onto the anfield legend Luis Suarez. for some odd reason he just cant seem to score against west brom. at the start of the season he had mutiple oppurtunites to score and he just couldnt. today for the luis suarez we know (top 5 best players in the world, if not top 3) he had reasonably enough chances to score and he just couldnt neither. no worrys this guy has got a bag of tricks up his sleeve and they hit you out of nowhere. he'll be back, but for an odd reason he cant score against west brom :(. but honestly when we have 2 strikers on the pitch (sturridge and suarez) we look so much better. and i dont know why rodgers didnt just put henderson behind suarez and start coutinho on left wing. playing players out of position when there is players available in that position is bad managing (even though henderson always puts in a 100% real liverpool type player once he fully develops). rodgers should have started coutinho and even if he did want to bring him on as a sub he should have bought him on instead of borini. giving a new signing 30minutes is a decent time for him to make an impact on the game and even better with your home crowd behind you. now hes probly gonna go and give him a debut against zenit all the way in russia with probly average players around him like allen and sterling instead of our best squad because its the europa league, and thats not gonna be easy. giving your new signing 12minutes to play is not a nice way to introduce and when he came on, he would have scored if not for a handball.

Gotta agree with Zanatos. There were plenty of quality options on defense that could have been had around the £10 - 13 mil range. I think Sturridge was a necessary signing, but that defense has looked horrible all year. Going into the transfer window, Agger was screwing up, Johnson looked awful, and Coates was next best option, which isn't saying much at all!

He didn't even have a scouting squad when he brought in the summer transfers, all of that money, wasted.

The only thing truly keeping Rodgers from getting some decent players is the "youth movement" thing. And even he's coming around on the fact that you need some experienced players to go with all the young ones. But it wasn't the money. It's all been on Brendan.

Went round to my (MUFC supporting) brother-in law's to watch this game and was dismayed by the ineptitude of Liverpool's performance at 67 minutes. Said I would give them 3 minutes to improve or I was gone. Got out just before the inevitable happened.

Brendan Rodgers hasn't got a clue and must go. Liverpool supporters shouldn't be subjected to his post match ramblings anymore. - How is he able to justify his transfer spending Mr Henry?

As someone has already said the team is passing too much. Unfortunately most of it seems to be directed to their own goal. Does he not understand that the more passes made the greater the likelihood of losing possession. Liverpool have not got the skill of Barcelona or the Harlem Globetrotters!

Please Mr Henry get an experienced football manager on board soon or you will have no need to extend your Stadium capacity.

The managers team line up was comical, B Rodgers the biggest asset the best sides in the world have is pace, speed, creativity, width, class and quality in attack.

Without Sturridge and Sterling starting for us, club look pedesterian. Sterling and Sturridge's pace and speed, keep teams wary and cautious as they can easily be exposed. But as Sturridge is out injured and Sterling started on bench, the lack of pace, speed, penetration within attack was there for all see. Downing has pace and speed and played pretty well, but in the premiership pace,speed and trickery are the biggest assets the top and best attackers in league have in their locker.

How we played 4 guys who all play in centre midfielders together was huge mistake. Sterling and Downing should have started out wide from start, both ou full backs were abizmal yesterday night and our centre midfield today played diabolical. The amount of misplaced passes that happened during the game was embarrassing to say the least

He didnt have his best game but he tried his best as he always does,Like why beat the lad down when he tried? If he didnt bother his arse I can understand people giving him stick but thats not the case

Rodgers' maximum potential may only be a midtable team. Doesnt know how to mix it up. No tactical nous agst big teams. Makes wrong subs. Buys mostly wrong players, exposes the young players too much or plays them in wrong matches.

Roger !You have 5 goalkeepers,13 defenders,11 mid-fielders,3 midfield attackers,4 attackers,and those you sent on around 5 players.What are going to do with these 36 or 38 players in the club. Among these guys,only fingers counts are struggling to keep the LFC reputation. By the way ,what is the secret of the loss against WBA ? Match fixing ? Don't talk to much, you don't deserve TOP 4.

Today was Borini's day to play Striker but he was left on the bench. Why Brendan?

Shelvey should not be playing in advanced and wider positions - When he plays CM and has a bad game, then criticise him. Same with Hendo. Why play players out of position?

We always find ourselves in this position, dropping points when based on performance we could of gotten so much more.

If Stevie slots it away then the game completely changes, but WBA came with a plan, they are well organised and have a tactically superb manager. That's why with a little luck, they got 3 points - And I'm not even surprised WBA won.

The issue as i see it is that the better players at the club are players like johnson Agger etc and they aren't improving because their has not been any real competition ...players need real competition for their places ...they have been let down badly by the last three managers who signings have been abysmal for a club of the statue of Liverpool who use to be Genuine champs league competitors

we all knew several seasons ago that the squad needed improvement and what have we seen ...terrible and average signings with the exception of maybe suarez...its the managers fault ...simple!

the managers have let the club down by signing players that have NOT improved upon the squad left by Rafa they all had a duty to spend better

all mangers buy some duds (50%) but we have seen a real abysmal record of poor signings that some are fooled into thinking are ok because of the worsening quality of the general squad i.e Henderson/downing etc

I totally agree. The team needs rhythm and to continue on the momentum we built up after playing awesomely against arsenal and city.

By replacing sturridge (FW) with shelvey (MF) we struggled offensively and our game plan changed from our previous 2 games.It should be either henderson or shelvey starting, not both. And I think henderson is playing much better so deserves the nod ahead of shelveyRodgers is slowly destroying shelveys career....he is a CM, not a CF.I wish Borini / sterling had started in place of shelvey.

but i was at no point confident zanatos..i was going tp post at half time that wba will shoot once and score..but didnt want everyone banging on to me about being negative.....as a team we are all mouth no action

shelvey was poor but he dose not deserve the abuse ,but he leaves himself open to it by being on twitter,dose anybody know if rodgers has got a twatter account,god then you would know what abuse was ;-)

@Twistadee11:disqus You are spot on. I saw the team lineup pre-match and nearly choked.That was the line-up we used when we had a striker crisis and had no choice but to play shelvey up there.Now that sturridge is injured, we have sterling, borini and even coutinho who would have done better than shelvey in that CF role.I really rate shelvey but rodgers is slowly destroying shelveys confidence by playing him out of position.Sterling/borini should have started in place of shelvey.If rodgers really wanted shelvey to get some game time then he should have replaced henderson with him. Although henderson is on really hot form now so that would have been stupid too.

The reason the whole team played badly was because of rodgers decision to take away an attacker (sturridge) and add a midfielder (shelvey).

The whole team didn't look comfortable as they couldn't attack like they had in previous games because shelveys CF movement is rubbish

ARRRRRGGHHHHHHH.....rodgers made a big mistake. Still think he is the man to lead us forward but he can't afford to make mistakes.

I don't see how you can conclude the manager doesn't rate Shelvey. If he doesn't rate him he wouldn't be playing. Not only that, but he's started ahead of Allen as you've said, and the manager (incorrectly I believe) has moved Henderson out wide to accommodate him in the team.

Shevey didn't have a great game, and hasn't been playing that well, but he's by no means the worst. Still, slagging off fans is not on. Many of the fans are far mroe intelligent than he is, and have been watching football since he was in nappies. A bit more respect to criticism should be shown. And anyway, he's an idiot for having twitter in the first place.

Running a Twitter account as a professional footballer is like asking for abuse. Does the fake Ronaldo have one? Guess he, too, gets abuse.

I disagree with the author's conclusion that it looks like Rodgers not rating Shelvey, because he got substitued so and so many times. The lad is still only 20. Don't see what's wrong with not playing him 90 mins every game.

sad and pathetic. can you imagine having social media in the 70's and 80's, and slating the players or shanks/paisley? we had our off days then (for younger viewers, this is true), thank god it wasn't around. i moan and groan about certain players, but some of the twitter abuse is ridiculous. thank the lord i'm not a 'twitterererer' or a 'facebookrerer'!!

yes, if anyone in the public eye has at 'twittererer' account, don't complain about abuse. unless they are naive,very trusting or stupid, they must know how some people's minds work, nowadays. as he is a footballer, i would plump for the last one!

You are right. We had nothing in attack. Time and time again we bring the ball up the wings with one of the FB's and cross it in to absolutely no red shirts.Suarez is great but he lives outside the box which is no fucking use whatsoever when people are crossing to 5 opposition players and some red spectators outside the 18 yard box.

Shelvey was asked to play a lot further forward than he is used to, so I do have some sympathy for him. But the bare facts are that he was ineffectual, he shirked tackles (other than a cowardly one), and he even got injured when the ball (Yes. I know. A fncking BALL) hit him on the head. In short, he didn't seize his chance.

Last night I heard three words I never thought I would hear at Anfield :

Next season i will judge Brendan. He will have had a whole year assess his squad and should have plans ready now to bring in what he needs and shed what he doesn't. Coutinho must have thought "wtf?" after witnessing that D:

In one match (along time ago) Shelvey started, scored a goal and played out of his skin but in the second half he was awful and I think he was substituted. Guess that Brendan must have lectured him on what he was doing wrong!

Unlike many who have posted on this site I wouldn't give up on young Shelvey. He can play football of that I have no doubt BUT he is not the utility player the manager thinks he is. He needs to be given a role and allowed to develop naturally instead of being messed about.

Up until the 70th minute I saw no Liverpool player who performed well so be fair don't blame Shelvey - just throw his computer under the next bus to shut him up. His lip is more harmful to him than his performances.

However, when Suarez and Gerrard have an off-day together we have no chance of winning.

everyone saying liverpool played bad, no they didn't west brom defended well and foster made magnificent saves and wba took chances. Shelvey is young still learning, liverpool fans really need to learn about football some people saying they couldn't pass or shoot at goal proves it lmao.

i agree, I did post it at half time lol. Some games you can just tell that we wont score. I always have this thing to that if it is 0-0 and you miss a pen, you wont score after. Theres no logic in it, but it rings true so often

Totally agree. Could not believe my eyes at the team sheet. Borini should have replaced Sturridge as CF. This would have enabled the team to keep the same shape plus build Borini's confidence.Maybe the master plan was to play Shelvey, as he spoke up about not playing, then make him look bad so that he does not speak up again.

Is this the same Aquilani winning huge praise for his performances in Italy? If a manager signs a player, the player starts to look good and is injury free by the end of the season and then the manager gets sacked and no-one else gives the player a chance, does that mean it's a dud signing???? Funny logic.

I have said a long time ago that I think that Shelveys personality ALONE will if given the time will become a Liverpool great.Why? He has balls, he doesn't fear ANYONE even at the age of 20 he was telling Ferguson to fuck off in no uncertain terms.That kind of FIGHT is what ANY team would want in the trenches.He's not frightened of a tackle and has that nasty streak that ALL top player have.

You all forget that he was banging in goals in the Europa league no problems,so he does score.He's also being played out of position he's actually a central midfielder not a advanced midfielder.

He's 20 not 25 and when you watch his positional play, distribution, and ability to be in a goal scoring position you can't name many 20 year olds with that knack.

Also we had to competition to get him, Arsenal,Chelsea & Tottenham were all after his signature.I'd sell Downing before him as Shelvey will only get better Downing is as good as he's ever gonna be.

Have some patience, the players coming through are REALLY young.Wisdom is not a right back he's a Central Defender who in my view should be given a shout in the Skertel Slot.The right back position Kelly left back Robinson.

The midfield in the coming years WILL NOT be around Gerrard. I expect to see more of Lucas,Coady,Henderson,Shelvey The wings and wider attackers will be Sterling,Ibe,Suso,,Morgan &Assaidi.

The Strikers, Sinclair (This guy is going to be something special),Sturridge Suarez and Morgan.

no competition ? well at right back we have the excellent Wisdom, Kelly to return, Flanagan, not to mention a youngster who's already in the full irish team Mclaughlin. Do you lot know anything about Liverpool ? have never read so much shite.

players shouldn't twitter .... yea maybe right ..... but people shouldn't write empty headed articles for an ego trip, and have clueless people making comments when they clearly know very little about either football or our club

Sad thing is that there was a time in our recent past when we would have missed a pen, be tied 0-0, and still found a way to win the game (especially in the last 10 or so mins of games). At that time, Steven's volley or Hendo's flick would have found the back of the net. Not sure if I would call it "luck", but I think its belief. "The KOP will suck the ball into the net" they would say, but we watched people in the Kop leave the stadium with 10mins in the game to go! The players feed off the fans and right now we're not exactly serving up steak. "Where's that famous anfield atmosphere" - they sing week-in and week-out and they're spot on. We're playing good football and we need to stop waiting for the players to pull a rabbit out of the hat and get behind them every-game and bring that belief back to the ground imo. I know its not an easy thing to do in 9th but if we (as the fans) dont start now, I just can't see our season getting any better and LFC loosing more games against frustrating opposition

I'm sure that had Twitter existed when Gerrard or Fowler were 20, they would have done the same thing. Shelvey is a winner with a short temper, nothing wrong with that. As long as he doesn't let it affect his next game, he'll be fine.

loool shelvey is a dick. he didnt play as if he cared wasnt pressing and because of him hendo has to play on the wing even tho wen he plays in shelveys role he thrives. real box-to-box player. rodgers should have started coutinho on left wing then put hendo in attacking. or coutinho attacking, and assaidi on the left with hendo in the holding role

rodgers is the problem.. with his 4-3-3 formation and his tiki taka obssession. he got a team who played two domestic finals. he sold/loan out adam, aquilani, bellamy, maxi, kuyt, carroll, spearing, cole, added some flops (borini allen assaidi), and now saying the club doesnt have the squad depth! liverpool is a big club and needs a big name manager, not a championship manager who wants to copy barca way of playing. we need a manager who can attracts world class players. this guy is a joke.. if he is intelligent enough his name in one of his 3 envelopes

If Borini is a striker, why did Rodgers play shelvey up front and leave Borini out? The starting line up was a joke and so was our performance, no balls into the box, no players in the box, top striker out wide left, Full backs were unbelievably bad, WTF? A blind man in a dark room could see what was going to happen, after half hour. Why no Skirtel? Poor Substitutions, i blame Rodgers, can't see whats obvious, seen enough of him to realise he's not up to the job.

real fans will be patient and take the bad with the good. People moaning were probably praising the team last week. We missed Sturridge last night with the right signings in the summer and the young players with more experience i am sure we will improve.If wba keeper hadnt had a blinder we would of been talking about top 4.

I don't have much to say about Shelvey, but if according to BR we showed character during the clashes with Man c and Arsenal, this game we had no character at all.Our attackers found a worthy opponent in Foster's superb performance in goal, but still should have done better. And Suarez need to stop diving. He makes the club looks like a cheating club. I do not approve of it, as brilliant as he may be.We lost a lot of points due to defence errors during the last month, most notably Reina's mistake against city, and Agger's mistakes at BOTH of the West Brom goals.Skrtel had a horrendus match a couple of weeks ago as well(and of course Coates against Oldham).We need an overhaul of our center backs and keeper(though Pepe was better this match... but it's not too hard to improve on his last performance now is it?).Either way, we need a new defence coach because the people in charge of that area at the moment are not doing a good job. I have a good candidate too... I'll give you a hint - he's a player who's retiring at the end of the season. And if that won't do, take one of the smaller clubs's coachs. they're doing a better job than our's.

Interesting to see how differently Agger dealt with the abuse he got on Twitter. Shelvey should take a leaf from his book. Agger said sorry, and got a lot of praise, Shelvey has a pop, and in turn is making himself alien to the fans. He has a lot to learn in terms of how to act like a pro.

Super attackers are not the solution. If you look at Manure, they don't really have super players, but they are a super team. In Suarez, Sturridge and Coutinho, we do have 3 super attackers, but even so, they must be able to have some ball, which they do when we play with the right midfield combination.

We are, however, shipping goals way too easily this season. It is so bad I can typically look at the play a few seconds before the other team scores and think 'goal'. We get caught on the counter very easily and the moment we have our entire back line back-peddling, it will almost definitely be a goal conceded. If we concede corners against huge players good in the air, we are equally in danger.

Our team is too clean and too small. No one seems to be reading the game well enough to commit the necessary cynical fouls early enough like Alonso used to do. Agger's set piece defending is also horrendous.

Our boys have also got to remember to press. Failure to press was costing us big time in the 07-08 season. Soton managed to beat Shitteh recently because of their intense pressing, same way we were beaten by WBA and how we've been beaten by Wigan in the past few seasons. Our boys rarely intercept. Of course, player size could help this cause, but this is one of our current failings.

I do believe Hendo and Shelvey can start together though. Their qualities are very different and they could balance each other out depending on how the rest of the team is set up.

When they get the ball:- Shelvey already knows where the rest of the team is- Hendo starts looking for someone- Shelvey looks to create- Hendo looks to provide

When they don't have the ball:- Shelvey moves into position to receive it- Hendo is trying to win it back

In the final third:- Shelvey is hungry- Hendo is opportunistic and good at it

Shelvey > Hendo where it comes to attacking vision, taking risks, team awareness and seeing spaces.

Hendo > Shelvey in pace, work rate, passing accuracy.

In short, you could say Shelvey is the better footballing brain where Henderson is a more naturally gifted athlete. Either of them could play the CAM role effectively depending on who they're surrounded by up top. If we have speed and muscle up top, Shelvey would be a better fit, but if we have creative forwards, then Hendo is a superior match. As box to box players, Shelvey offers more variety in linking defense with attack and is a more efficient option in open games. Hendo is a more sensible option in tighter or more physical games because he is faster and holds the ball better.

I would say our 2 midfielders who are hard to match are Gerrard and Shelvey because they do not offer anything different, but Gerrard edges it on experience. These are also our 2 most likely midfielders to gift the ball to the other team, although unlike Allen, they aren't exactly easy to rob. However, Gerrard and Shelvey are direct swaps tactically, which is probably why as much as Rodgers likes Shelvey, he isn't getting much game time at all.

I would also say the person Hendo is keeping out of the side is Suso, even if they have very different styles of play. However, their application is similar. If you need fast feet in tight spaces to support a fluid and creative front 3, these are our 2 best players for that purpose, and Hendo happens to be bigger and more likely not to get dispossessed.

Hendo and Shelvey could potentially form a great midfield partnership with one in front and one behind depending on the game, however, they really should not be playing close together to get the best out of them. Playing Shelvey deep requires a defensive mid alongside him to do the ball winning where Henderson doesn't require one. Shelvey should be in front if the midfield is packed or tight and look to receive Hendo's short ball and launch an attack from that. If the other team defends deep, then Hendo's pace will prove more unsettling around the area and Shelvey has the space to play the ball to Hendo, provided he doesn't play the ball to the other team.

Although I much prefer Shelvey to Hendo, currently, Hendo's name will always be on the team sheet first, largely because we already have Gerrard. Secondly, Hendo is not someone you will want to remove from the pitch in his current form. Rodgers found out the hard way what could happen when you do against WBA. Henderson is a pain for anyone to play against. The defenders at Arsenal know all about it. Not only does he never give up, he has the feet and speed for it.

Shelvey had a problem before he arrived at Anfield! He is,as you suggest; sensitive to the extreme. His baldness,(alopecia) is caused though constant worry! In his case he has bald spots all over;not the normal baldness that most people have!

rodgers didnt do anything good this season. He spent nearly 45 mil this season and we are at same position where we were last year. And this season (by God's grace) we didn't had any problems with injuries to our star players unlike last year (gerrard missing some game, suarez's ban, lucas's injury). we are inconsistent and our problems are same as last year - goal conversion rate, no physicality in midfield, leaking goals which should be stopped.Only bright side this term is Suarez and Sturridge's patnership..

Shelvey is absolute rubbish and the sooner we offload him the better. He has no future at LFC. He is a championship player at best. He has not pace, no strength, he is lazy, his shooting is poor... seriously, what the hell is he doing in the squad?

40 years ...i have seen it all ...you? I am not sure you get the point these are unproven youngsters that are not giving am established england international real competition...he still is our best full back and that really shouldn't be the case at anfield...btw my favorite LFC player was Phil Neal!

No, I meant the Aquilani we've paid £17m for and whom no-one was willing to pay more than £3m for when we tried to sell him a few years later. I actually liked Aquilani, but found it puzzling to spend such a big amount of money on an injured player, who also has quite a history of injuries. Funny logic.